These apps allow you to customize your landing tabs, add your blog, add videos and photos, add chat, add polls, contests, geolocation, scheduling, email, ecommerce and much more.

Why Facebook Apps?

Why add apps to your Facebook Business (Fan) page? By customizing your Fan page with apps, you can significantly enhance the user’s experience. And, the more you keep your fans engaged and coming back for more, the more likely you’ll increase your “viral visibility.”

In other words, every time a fan interacts with your Fan page, it’s free advertising for you because each fan’s activity goes out into their stream (their wall and their friends’ News Feeds). To find the best apps to enhance your Fan page, you could spend endless hours browsing Facebook’s Application Directory:

Facebook App Directory

However, there are literally tens of thousands from which to choose. Even clicking on the Business category as I’ve done in the screenshot above, we get apps like Bartab (send friends real drinks for $1) and Hugs and Hearts. I don’t know about you, but these are hardly business apps in my opinion!

There’s also Appbistro where you can browse their comprehensive directory of apps for businesses.

Now that Facebook nixed the ability to have our own custom content/apps on the Wall tab (left column), we need to get even more creative to ensure content on tabs is actually seen and that your fans interact with it; otherwise there’s not much point in having a dormant app that doesn’t enhance the user’s experience.

You can track your metrics via Facebook Insights and see which of your tabs gets the most clicks as shown in the screenshot below:

Facebook Insights - Tab Views

However, it may be that very few of your tabs get much visibility except the actual Landing tab (my top scorer in the screenshot above). Your Landing tab is the default page that visitors see who have not yet joined your page (click Edit Page > Manage Permissions > select Default Landing Tab).

So, my recommendation is to focus on those apps that actually publish content to your own Fan page stream (your page wall and the News Feed of your fans). Plus, add a few apps that allow for heightened engagement at specified times, such as live streaming video and live chat apps as I’ve detailed below for you.

Custom Landing Tabs

Let’s start with custom content as it’s important to have a branded Landing tab for your Facebook page. In fact, as reported by InsideFacebook, BrandGlue founder Jeff Widman discovered that a custom Landing tab DOUBLES conversion to fans:

We ran an A/B test just four weeks ago to guesstimate the efficacy of a landing tab. We drove visitors to the fan page of a major brand using ads. Those ad-driven visitors converted to fans at a rate of approximately 47% WITH a landing tab. When we turned off the landing tab, those same ad-driven visitors converted to fans at approximately 23%. A VERY noticeable loss in conversions over the course of the campaign.

The most popular app by far to add your own custom content has been Facebook’s own Static FBML. Facebook will be replacing all FBML tabs and apps with iFrames at the end of 2010, at which time you’ll be able to create custom tabs using iFrames. However, Facebook will continue to support any and all tabs/apps created prior to when FBML gets deprecated. See the Developers Roadmap for updates on the timeline of changes.

By way of example, here’s the Landing tab for Social Media Examiner’s Facebook page. Note the call to action (“Click the Like button”) and the seamless branding:

Social Media Examiner Facebook Fan Page - Landing Tab

Apps for adding custom content/branded Landing tab:

Here are my top two recommendations:

• Static FBML – you’ll need to be familiar with coding or use a WISIWYG editor first. See Tabfusion’s Free Facebook Page Tab Maker here.   Plus, review these two helpful tutorials.
• TabSite – free version with two TabSite subpages or choose from three paid levels. Complete WISIWYG editor; tabs within a main tab. TabSite is one of my favorites. It’s a very easy-to-use interface. I created the “RESOURCES” tab on my Facebook page using TabSite.

TabSite - Facebook App

Facebook custom tab apps:

• Welcome Tab
• iwiPage

For easy-to-use templates, check out these options:

• Static520 – UPDATE 12/21/10 – some users have reported this app provider is not working properly.
• Pagemodo
• FanPageEngine
• PageLever
• SplashTab
• FaceItPages – UPDATE 12/30/10 – added this provider to the list.

These sites offer suites of apps, including custom Landing tabs. Some apps are free, some have a fee:

• Involver
• MiproApps
• Tabfusion
• NorthSocial
• Momentus Media
• Friend2Friend
• ShortStack Lab
• Avenue Social

Involver.com - Facebook Suite of Apps

For a helpful review of some of these apps, see this post on TechCrunch. Plus, read Jay Baer‘s review of several of these apps here. For a list of over 50 Facebook-approved developers, go here.

Designers/developers:

If you’re looking for full hands-on customization service at very affordable rates, my top choices are:

• HyperArts
• Likeable Media
• Custom Fan Page Designs

See also:

• KickApps
• FanPageGenerator
• Say It Social
• Hilinsky Consulting
• 140ology [Update: added 12/21/10]

Enterprise-level customization:

• Vitrue
• Buddy Media
• Context Optional
• Sprout
• Friend2Friend
• Avenue Social

ContextOptional.com - Social Marketing Software and Services

See the complete list of Facebook Preferred Developer Consultants here.

Your Blog

Once you’re happy with your custom Landing tab, it’s time to import your blog’s RSS feed. My favorite app – used widely by many bloggers on Facebook – is Networked Blogs. It’s free and relatively simple to set up.

Networked Blogs - Facebook app

Once you’re set up and have a few followers, you can place the Networked Blogs widget on your blog for added visibility. Any time you have the chance to display your fans’ faces, go for it!

Networked Blogs - Facebook widget

You can add the Networked Blogs app to your personal profile in addition to your Fan page, if you wish. Alternate methods for pulling in your blog posts include:

• Facebook’s Notes app (can be a lag time and is sometimes buggy).
• Any of the RSS apps; e.g., RSS Graffiti, Social RSS or others.

RSS Feed and Content Publishers

You can easily import any of your content that has an RSS or Atom feed. For example, I import my Twitter favorites and Google Reader Shared Items using the RSS Graffiti app.

RSS Graffiti Facebook app

RSS/Content apps include:

• RSS Graffiti
• Social RSS
• Involver – RSS Feed (free version posts to the tab, Pro version posts to the wall)
• North Social – RSS Feed
• Objective marketer (complete publishing platform – used and recommended by Guy Kawasaki).

Video – YouTube and Viddler

I’ve been searching for some time for the ultimate YouTube app – one that automatically publishes new uploaded videos from your channel to your Facebook page wall, has a nice-looking tab, is easy to navigate and doesn’t take users away from your Fan page to view videos. Plus, if I were really waving a magic wand, I’d love it if YouTube gave us the option under their “Activity Sharing” feature to post liked or favorited videos to our Fan page (versus profile).

The closest I’ve found is YouTube Channels – I like their interface but the downside is they charge a monthly fee of $4.99 and I couldn’t get the Publish to Wall feature to work, so I canceled my subscription. Check out the YouTube Channel app by Involver (screenshot below) or the YouTube Video Box app.

Involver's YouTube Channel Facebook app

If you have a Viddler account instead of or in addition to YouTube, check out the Viddler app.

Twitter

I’m not a big fan of importing all tweets onto your Facebook wall, unless you don’t tweet that often! A more effective solution is to only publish select tweets TO your Fan page using this app:

• Selective Tweets – once set up, this app allows you to post your tweets to your Facebook page simply by including “#fb” at the end of the tweet (or there is an option to include #fb anywhere in the tweet but I don’t recommend that option as it’s too easy to make a mistake!). You can choose to post tweets to your personal profile and/or Fan page.

Or, my favorite solution as mentioned in the RSS Feed section above is to only import your Twitter Favorites. I do this using the RSS Graffiti app. To find the RSS feed URL for your Twitter Favorites, with the new Twitter design the only way is to view your Twitter account while logged out:

Another Twitter solution is to simply install an app that pulls in all your tweets onto a tab, but doesn’t publish in the stream. I’m not sure there’s much benefit to this, as I say the primary goal here is to get into the News Feeds of your fans.

• Involver’s Twitter Facebook app
• North Social Twitter Feed Facebook app

To publish your Facebook content TO Twitter as tweets, connect your page using Facebook’s own Twitter app. You have a choice of six different types of content: Status Update, Photos, Video, Links, Notes and Events. Facebook’s publisher (the field where you type your updates) takes up to 420 characters; whereas tweets are 140 characters. With this Facebook to Twitter app, your content will automatically be truncated with a link back to your Facebook page which can help increase engagement by bringing your Twitter followers onto Facebook.

Facebook's Twitter app

Flickr Photos

To display photos from your Flicker account, you might want to try the Flickr Tab app. See also the suite of app providers above.

SlideShare

If you have slides up on SlideShare, display them on your Facebook Fan page! You’ll have a nice display on the SlideShare tab, but I haven’t found that adding new slides automatically publishes to the wall. So, as you add new slides (and/or videos) to SlideShare.net, also publish the URL right on your Facebook page wall. What this does is pull in an actual player very similar to the video player with the blue play button icon. Your fans can play the slideshow right on your wall, and of course like and comment, providing that coveted News Feed ranking.

SlideShare Facebook app

Reviews

Facebook has a Reviews app that you can add to your Fan page. The cool thing about this app is whenever a fan writes a review, it goes out into their stream (their wall and friends’ News Feeds). If you have a particularly negative review, spam or trolls, unfortunately there’s no way to remove individual reviews. If that ever happens, you could remove the app altogether. Otherwise, I think the Reviews app is an often-overlooked goldmine for businesses to have on their Fan pages!

Live Video

One of my favorite apps to spark immediate real-time, live engagement is Vpype. You can launch a webcast at any time (or scheduled time) to your fans and the app then posts an announcement on your wall. The app can hold up to 300 viewers with a live chat alongside your webcam broadcast. You can easily record and archive your shows; recordings include the full chat transcript too. Plus, you can even download the FLV file of your shows. The app tab is aptly named “Shows.”

Vpype Facebook app

Read my review here from when I beta-tested the app for Vpype.

Alternatives to Vpype include:

• Livestream
• JustinTV
• UstreamTV
• Linqto (going live January 2011 – this should be a very popular webinar/livestream app!)

Live Chat

Along with offering impromptu or scheduled live video broadcasts, you could also offer live chat sessions with your fans. One such app I’ve tried and like is Clobby. The one downside of this app is the obnoxious banner ad at the top of the chatroom as you can see in the screenshot below. However, simply scroll the page down enough to hide the banner while chatting.

Clobby - Facebook live chat app

Whenever you open your chatroom, you can publish an announcement to your Fan page wall, which of course goes out in the stream and fans start coming over to chat. Publish a tweet as well to get even more people in the chatroom! You could host a regular live chat for your fans; I suggest capturing the chat stream with an app like ScreenFlow for Mac or Camtasia Studio for Mac or PC – that way, you have an archive to refer to.

For a more upscale chat room, see Involver‘s premium Facebook Connect Chat app. [UPDATE: 12/21/10 - this app is not displayed on Involver's website but IS available if you contact them.]

FAQs

If you find yourself continually answering the same questions for your clients and community, be sure to compile a Frequently Asked Questions section – the simple FAQ Page app allows you to have an FAQ tab on your Fan page that you can direct fans to when answering questions on your wall. A couple of things to note about this app: you can’t reorder the questions once inserted, so you may wish to compile your FAQs and all their answers in a separate document before pasting each one in. Also, it would be great if each question had its own unique URL so you could just share the link in answer to questions on your wall, but this isn’t the case.

FAQ Facebook app

Polls and Quizzes

For a poll or quiz app to work well, you want your fans to quickly and easily participate and for that activity to spark more engagement and visibility. If users have to jump through extra hoops to participate, they’ll likely just move on. This screenshot shows the Fan Appz poll app live on the Family Guy Fan page – I like how the app provides the option for voters to share (on their personal profiles) and also to share on their Fan pages!

FanAppz.com Poll app for Facebook

Some choices include (free and paid):

• Poll
• FanAppz Polls and Quizzes
• Widgetbox Poll app
• Involver’s Poll app

Contests and Promotions

Facebook’s rules around contests, drawings, competitions and sweepstakes are rigorous. Though many Facebook users are either unaware of the rules or choose to ignore them, I personally feel it’s not worth the risk to administer a promotion of any kind that doesn’t adhere to Facebook’s rules. In one fell swoop, you could lose your carefully built Fan page.

Facebook Promotions - Target example

The safest way to run any kind of contest or drawing on your Fan page is to use a third-party app such as:

• WildFire
• Fanappz
• Vitrue
• BuddyMedia
• Votigo
• ContextOptional
• BulbStorm
• NorthSocial
• Momentus Media
• Friend2Friend
• Strutta

Apps for Local Businesses

With the boom of LBS (Location-based Services), local business have more ways to integrate social and mobile media than ever before. Why not show off your Foursquare customer check-ins with an app on your Fan page?

Plus, be sure to claim your Facebook Place page: just search for your own business name on Facebook and look for the link at the foot of the Place page that says “Is this your business?” Once claimed, you’ll have the opportunity to merge your Place page with your Fan page. The resulting new page looks rather different, so think carefully about this. (For examples of merged pages, take a look at Iron Horse Vineyards and The Ellen Show).

• Foursquare Place Widget – see screenshot below
• Yelp Reviews by North Social
• Store Locator by Involver
• Facebook Places and Deals

Foursquare Place Widget - Facebook app

Appointment Scheduling

Make it super-easy for your Facebook fans, clients and prospects to book time with you. Add a tab synched with your appointment scheduling platform of choice. Remember, each tab has its own unique URL; you can easily direct your fans to your appointment tab.

• Schedulicity app (requires a Schedulicity account)
• Genbook BookNow! app (requires a Genbook account)

Schedulicity app

Contact Forms

Ideally, you have your own email marketing service provider as outlined in the next section. However, perhaps you wish to get started with a simple contact form on your Facebook page. Here are a few options:

• Contact Me

ContactMe app

Embed on an FBML tab:

• Response-O-Matic
• JotForm
• Allforms

See this helpful post by Tim Ware at HyperArts with a review and tutorial on JotForm and Allforms.

Email Marketing Apps

Your Facebook Fan page can be a tremendous source of traffic and a means to collect email addresses of your fans. Plus, some email marketing service providers have a feature that allows you to post your latest enewsletter to your Fan page. Check out any of the following:

• Mailchimp
• Constant Contact
• Nutshell Mail
• Delivra via TabSite integration. (See Delivra on Facebook)
• AWeber

NutshellMail - Facebook integration

Ecommerce Apps – Sell Products on Your Page

Many Facebook page owners often ask me if it’s okay to put up “Buy now” buttons and actually try to make sales directly from their Fan pages. I say “Go for it!!” If your fans are already spending time on your page learning about you and your products and services, you just never know when someone might be ready to buy from you. There are a few choices for adding a shopping cart tab to your fan page, including:

• Ecwid – free, run your own store, mirrored on many sites
• Payvment
• ShopTab
• VendorShop [UPDATE: added 12/21/10. Thanks to Krishna De for the tip + review.]
• OWJO [UPDATE: added 12/21/10. Thanks to Krishna De for the tip + review.]

Ecwid - Ecommerce app

See also this related blog post on Social Media Examiner: How to Sell Products via Your Facebook Page.

What do you think? Do you use any of these apps?  What has been your experience?  Also, have I missed any Facebook page apps you’ve tried successfully?  Please add your comments in the section below.

(Important Update: Facebook no longer supports FBML. Please refer to the articles on Facebook iFrame.) One of the most popular FBML tags is fb:visible-to-connection. A favorite of marketers, this FBML tag allows a Facebook page to show different content to fans and non-fans. When a non-fan clicks the Like button – viola! – the non-fan content disappears and the fans-only content replaces it. As a method of motivating a visitor to become a fan of your page, this can be very effective.

This FBML tag is often—and erroneously—referred to as a “hack”; however, it was created by Facebook to do exactly what it does: ”to display the content inside the tag on a user’s or a Facebook page’s profile only if the viewer is a friend of that user or is a fan of that Facebook page.”

Examples of Brands Using Fans-only Content

There are many ways to motivate your visitors to Like your page. Here are a few examples from brands on Facebook:

Levi’s promises “Instant access to exclusive content.”

1-800 Flowers offers a discount code for 20% off your next order.

Teesey Tees keeps it mysterious: “See what the deal is.”

DIGISTORE offers “Discount Codes, Unadvertised Specials, Free Monthly Giveaways.”

You get the picture. “We have great content here, BUT FIRST you gotta Like us!”

Of course, you should make sure that your “teaser” to non-fans is sufficiently compelling for them to Like your page. Many pages require a visitor to become a fan before displaying certain content, but they don’t convey the value of the content. Teesey Tees, above, comes very close to this.

Following are instructions on how to add fans-only content to your page.

Add the Static FBML Application to Your Page

First, you’ll need to add the Static FBML application to your page. Here is a tutorial.

NOTE: Static FBML can only be added to a Facebook page (i.e., Business Page, Company Page, Brand Page). It cannot be added to a personal profile.

What Is FBML?

FBML is Facebook’s own proprietary mark-up language that enables your tab content to interact with the Facebook API (“Application Programming Interface”). It is as easy to use as HTML.

Most FBML tags, including the ones I use in this article, have an opening tag and a closing tag. The content for each tag — HTML, CSS and/or more FBML — is placed between these opening and closing tags.

Creating Your Fans-only Content on Your Custom Tab

Once you’ve added the Static FBML application, the implementation of this FBML tag is pretty easy. The only part that is somewhat tricky is getting rid of the white space the fans-only content creates even though it’s not yet visible.

Facebook uses the “visibility:hidden” style to hide the fan content until the user Likes the page. However, this style rule still reserves the space for the content; it just doesn’t show the content. Consequently, the non-fan content is pushed down the page! However, this is easily solved with a bit of CSS “absolute positioning.” I incorporate this approach into the following examples.

The code for the FBML box:
<code>__abENT__lt;div id=__abENT__quot;wrapper__abENT__quot;__abENT__gt;
FANS-ONLY CONTENT GOES HERE
__abENT__lt;div id=__abENT__quot;non-fans__abENT__quot;__abENT__gt;NON-FANS CONTENT GOES HERE__abENT__lt;__abENT__#8260;div__abENT__gt;
__abENT__lt;__abENT__#8260;div__abENT__gt;</code>

As shown above, all the tab content will be contained in the “wrapper” DIV.

<div id=”wrapper”> opens this containing DIV. CSS styles are applied to the ID “wrapper” via the stylesheet.

All the fans-only and non-fan content is placed between the opening <fb:visible-to-connection> tag and closing </fb:visible-to-connection> tag. This content can be HTML, FBML and CSS.

The fans-only content comes first, followed by the non-fan content which immediately follows the opening <fb:else> FBML tag.

The non-fan content is contained within the <div id=”non-fans”> and </div> tags. CSS styles are applied to the ID “non-fans” via the stylesheet.

Immediately following the non-fan content is the closing </fb:else> tag, followed by the closing </fb:visible-to-connection> tag and, finally, the </div> tag to close the “wrapper” DIV.

Here is the Static FBML box with the above code, and the link to an external stylesheet:

Here is the CSS for the external stylesheet (with example URL):
<code>#wrapper {
width:520px;
margin:0 auto; border:0; padding:0;
position:relative;
}
#non-fans {
width:520px;
position:absolute; top:0; left:0;
}</code>

Your external stylesheet should have only the CSS style rules. Don’t include the <style> … </style> tags!

If you can’t use an external stylesheet

If you don’t have a server where you can upload a separate stylesheet, you can “inline” the styles inside the HTML tags. Although this isn’t ideal, it’s an option if you can’t create a separate stylesheet, host it on a server, and link to it with the <link> tag.

Here is the above example, with the styles for the <div> tags inlined (notice we don’t need the IDs if we use this approach):

Testing and Troubleshooting

Testing and troubleshooting this particular FBML tag is a bit tricky, because when logged in as a user who is a page admin, you will see both fans-only and non-fan content when viewing the tab.

• Create a user account for testing: The most efficient way to test is to create a Facebook account for testing only, or use a friend’s or colleague’s account. (Creating a new personal profile for testing may violate Facebook’s Terms of Service — See #4, Registration and Account Security — even if done with good intentions.) You can be logged in to Facebook as one user (the admin account) in one browser and logged in as the test account in a different browser (I use Firefox and Safari). Then you don’t have to keep logging in and out of Facebook as admin, then as tester, etc.
  When testing, you’ll need to toggle back and forth between Liking and Unliking a page. To Unlike a page, click on the Wall tab. Near the bottom of the left column of the Wall, you’ll see “Unlike”:
  
  Click that to Unlike the page, and you can click the Like button to re-Like the page. Repeat as necessary.

• Use an external stylesheet, NOT inlined styles: Most browsers will correctly display your page if you have inlined the CSS with the <style> tag, but NOT Internet Explorer 8!
  Because millions of people use this particular browser, your CSS should be in its own file (with the extension “.css”) and be referenced from your FBML page, with the <link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”URL-TO-EXTERNAL-STYLESHEET” />. You’ll need to have this file hosted somewhere on the web where you can link to it.

• Double-check all URLs: If any files (images, CSS, etc.) are not being displayed or accessed, be sure to test the URLs for these files directly in your browser, typing or pasting the URL in the address bar to make sure you can access the file directly.
  
  If you can’t access the file directly, then your URL is incorrect.

• Check for proper syntax: Make sure that URLs are surrounded by matching quotes (single or double is fine, but they must match) and that they are plain-text, straight-up-and-down quotes (not “fancy” or “curly” quotes).

• Check your Tab on the Most Popular Browsers and on Mac AND Windows: You want to be sure your tab is displaying properly on the most popular browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome, at the very least) and on both Mac and Windows. What displays well in Firefox, Chrome and Safari may not (and often doesn’t) display well on Internet Explorer.

What About Facebook’s Announcement on Killing Off FBML?

On August 19, 2010, Namita Gupta announced the impending phase-out of FBML. However, I expect that support for Static FBML and the fb:visible-to-connection tag will be around indefinitely. Static FBML is Facebook’s own application and just several months ago they offered Static FBML custom tabs as a consolation prize to users who were distraught over the killing off of the Boxes tab. I expect it will be supported well into 2011 and perhaps beyond.

Read this detailed article on the future of Static FBML and FBML, which includes the opinions of a number of expert developers.

Have you tried fan-only content on your Facebook page? What has been your experience? Please leave your comments in the box below.

There’s a lot of misconceptions and frustrations floating around when it comes to Facebook.

In this article, I’ll help debunk some of the big Facebook myths that may be preventing you from an amazing opportunity.

Why Facebook Marketing?

First and foremost, Facebook, like other social media, is a phenomenal way to become more visible and successful by making a face for yourself online.

Facebook is now the largest social network on the planet with over 500 million active users, long ago surpassing former social networking giant MySpace—and it continues to grow at 1 million new users a week.

Considering those numbers, you have to ask yourself—do you think your target market might be there? And if you’re not there, what might you be missing?

Myth #1: “It’s Just for Kids”

For those still skeptical, a common objection is that most of Facebook’s users are of a younger demographic and therefore there aren’t any benefits to using it to market their business.  However, you may be surprised to find out that according to January 2010 statistics, the 35+ demographic now represents more than 30% of the entire user base, and the 55+ audience grew an incredible 922.7% in 2009 alone.

Plus, compare the low to no cost of using Facebook—essentially just your Internet connection—to other marketing and advertising methods such as the Yellow Pages, the newspaper, TV and radio, and you’ve got a pretty convincing case for why you should be building a presence on Facebook.

In addition to the demographics, there are a few other myths in particular I want to address so you can start seeing the results and opportunities that so many other business owners already enjoy.

Myth #2: “Facebook takes WAY too much time.”

This is probably the most frequent concern that I hear.  It’s true that it can be a major time-sink if you let it —but know that it doesn’t have to be.  You need to be a little bit ruthless with yourself, especially if you’re using Facebook for both business and keeping up with friends and family.

People aren’t kidding when they say social media can be addictive.  But if you’re avoiding Facebook because of fears about it taking too much time, you’re really missing out on important networking opportunities and conversations.

If you think about comparing it to traditional business networking and the traveling and time commitment that takes, you’ll begin to realize that networking on Facebook is great because it can be done at your convenience.  That’s not to say it has to completely replace local or face-to-face networking, but it can certainly supplement it.

Specific Strategies

So how can you really leverage your time instead of just poking around trying to figure out how anyone is ever going to find out about your business?

First, the biggest thing to understand is why you’re on Facebook.  What’s your strategy?  What are your goals?  Again, if you don’t know why you’re there, it becomes a lot easier to waste time aimlessly floating around.

What can you do instead?

Here are a few tips and techniques to help you achieve maximum visibility in minimum time:

• Before anything else, alter your notification settings under “Account Settings” and “Notifications” and turn most of the notifications off. (You want to come to Facebook for a set amount of time, and if you’re getting notifications in your email every time someone interacts with your profile you, will become too distracted!)
• Ignore or block frivolous applications.
• Update your status regularly.
• Skim through the news feed on the home page, which is composed of all of your friends’ updates.  If something interesting catches your eye, hit the “like” button or comment on it.
• Check your wall and if anyone has commented to you, quickly respond.
• On the right-hand side of the home page, see who among your friends is having a birthday and wish them a happy one.
• On the top right of your home page, handle any requests you have waiting.
• If you have an event going on, such as a local workshop or a teleseminar, announce it using the Events application.
• If you have a blog, use the NetworkedBlogs or Notes applications to import your blog posts, which will then appear in your friends’ and/or page supporters’ news feeds.

Bring your blog to Facebook with the NetworkedBlogs application.

• Post links to interesting sites or articles you come across by adding the Share on Facebook bookmarklet to your browser.
• If you use Twitter, install the application on Facebook called Selective Tweets to selectively post your tweets as status updates.
• Sign up for a free Hootsuite account and use it to update your status on multiple social networking profiles simultaneously including Facebook.

Make it a Habit

So, block out time to use Facebook in your schedule.  People laugh, but set a timer if you need to! Think of it as part of your marketing strategy.

If you’re new to Facebook, yes, you may need to spend an hour a day getting acclimated and developing your profile in the beginning, but you can really make an impact in much shorter amounts of time once you’ve gotten used to how it all works.  Commit to being judicious with your time.

Myth #3: “Facebook alone will get you clients and customers.”

This would be wonderful if it was true, of course.  Do people get clients and customers as a result of being on Facebook? Absolutely.  But throwing up a profile and expecting the money to roll in is not going to happen.

You’d be surprised how many people end up discouraged because they’ve been on Facebook a good while and they’re not getting the desired results.  Most of the time it’s because they don’t understand how Facebook fits into their overall marketing picture.

It’s really about consumers consuming what it is you are putting out there—which essentially, is content.  You’re steadily and gradually building momentum from relationships—the “know, like and trust factor” and word of mouth—to traffic, subscribers and eventually, sales.

Facebook is excellent for establishing credibility and expertise, exposing your brand and finding out what people want and need so that you can create and package those solutions and give it to them.

Honestly, there is no faster way to create credibility and brand recognition and quickly connect to hundreds of thousands of people who are looking for what you have to offer.

But your ultimate goal shouldn’t be to use Facebook (or any social network) as a direct sales channel. Before you even get on Facebook, you should have a website or blog to drive people to first. You need to be able to continue to build those relationships outside Facebook.  And the best way to do that is to have a way to get people on your email list.

People don’t buy right off of Facebook.  They also don’t usually buy from you the first time they visit your site, right?  You have to build up their know, like and trust.  But Facebook is amazing for building that familiarity and credibility and for driving people to your site so they can get to know even more about you.

Myth #4: “I already have a personal profile so I don’t need a business page.”

No matter the size of your business, it’s a good idea to set up a page.

For those of you who aren’t aware of a Facebook page (formerly known as a fan page), it’s a separate page from your personal profile, and many people use it for their business.

“Like” has replaced “Fan” terminology on Facebook.

Facebook pages are great for a number of reasons:

• Pages allow you to keep your personal info separate from your business info.
• Pages are public, which means that they are visible to the search engines and are not behind a login like personal profiles are (so be sure to use keywords pertaining to your business in the title of your page if you can—Facebook is ranked very highly in the search engines and you can benefit from this!).
• Pages are great for communicating with your supporters (formerly “fans”) and listening to, answering and updating them.
• Pages help spread viral awareness of your brand and business—a key aspect is that when people who “like” your page interact with it, this activity shows up in the news feeds of all of their friends.

I Have a Page. Now What?

Ok, now that you know why they’re important, how do you use a page successfully?

Here are just a few ways:

• Keep your page updated with content, such as pulling in your blog posts and sharing links.
• Ask open-ended questions and engage your supporters whenever possible.
• Treat your supporters to “exclusive” offers and content that not everyone else gets. Make them understand that they’re getting something special by supporting your business or brand on your page.
• Add the Static FBML application to create a simple form on your page for people to sign up for your newsletter, free report or seminar.
• Let your friends know about your page by clicking the link that says “Suggest to Friends” under your picture.

Now It’s Your Turn

Let’s hear your thoughts. Have you encountered any myths that you would add to this list?  Or were you a former Facebook skeptic turned believer? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below.

People must be lured to your fan page. And there are some good and bad ways to go about doing this. In this article, I’ll share a big myth and 21 ways to drive more fans to your Facebook fan page. (Though Facebook recently changed the “Become A Fan” button to the new, omnipresent “Like” button – and a fan page is called a “Business Page” or “Facebook Page” – we can still call them fan pages and people who join are fans!)

The Big Myth

There’s a great myth that once you create a Facebook fan page for your business, the first thing you should do to get fans is invite ALL your friends from your personal profile using the “Suggest to Friends” feature.

Unfortunately, this strategy may not be that effective and can, in fact, often backfire. I have seen many industry gurus complain that when they decline a fan page request, it’s frustrating to continue to be asked again and again.

There are several reasons not to use the Suggest to Friends feature:

• Facebook users can only like up to 500 pages and may wish to be selective. (Though I have seen it’s possible to go over this limit).
• Fan page suggestions may often build up, unnoticed. (At last count, I have 593 overlooked fan page suggestions and am already a fan of 500!)
• To aggressively pursue all your friends to join your fan page – for no apparent incentive – is counterintuitive to the nature of social media.

So, the good news is there are many ways to promote your fan page and proactively increase your fan base without bugging all your current Facebook friends, and also by thinking wider than just Facebook.

Here are 21 ways to get more fans for your Facebook fan page:

#1: Embed Widgets on Your Website

Select from a number of the new Facebook Social Plugins and place them on your website and blog. The Fan Box widget is now the Like Box and it works well to display your current fan page stream and a selection of fans - see screenshot below with Whole Foods Market Facebook Like Box. I would recommend adding a title above the box encouraging visitors to your site/blog to click the “Like” button (which makes them a Facebook fan).

Whole Foods Market Facebook Like Box.

You might also consider the Live Stream widget for more advanced uses, particularly on an FBML custom tab of your fan page itself. The Live Stream widget allows Facebook users to add their comments to a live event, for example, and that activity pushes out into their stream.

#2: Invite Your Email and Ezine Subscribers

Assuming you have an opt-in email list, definitely send out an invitation to your subscribers via email (several times, over time) letting them know about your fan page and encouraging them to join. Ideally, provide them with a description of the page and an incentive to join.

Be sure to have the Facebook logo/badge appear in your HTML newsletters. Instead of the usual “Join our Fan Page,” say something creative like “Write on our Facebook wall,” or “Join our Facebook community,” or “Come add your photo to our Facebook group” (where “group” is actually your fan page). Users have to be a fan in order to interact with your fan page in this way.

#3: Add to Your Email Signature Block

Instead of promoting your Facebook personal profile (if you do), include a link to your fan page in every email you send out. If you use web-based email, check out the Wisestamp signature addon.

#4: Make a Compelling Welcome Video

Create an attractive landing tab (canvas page) with a video that explains exactly a) what your fan page is about, b) who it’s for and c) why they should become members.  The result: you’ll increase your conversion rate from visitors to fans. One of my favorite fan page welcome videos is by Steve Spangler, the Science Guy! After watching his video, you can’t help but want to join!

(By the way, with the new Facebook changes, if your custom welcome tab and video talk about clicking the “Become A Fan” button, you may want to change the wording to “click the Like button” now).

#5: Use Facebook Apps

I recently tested a new live video-streaming app called Vpype. The app adds a tab to your fan page called “Shows” and when you broadcast as your fan page, everyone can view by default. (You can also broadcast as your personal profile and selectively invite friends/friend lists). I wrote up a review of this app here. By announcing via Twitter, your personal Facebook profile, your blog and your email list, you can broadcast regular live Internet TV shows from your fan page and create much buzz.

Another example of app integration is Target’s “Bullseye Gives” campaign. Target had their fans vote on which of ten charities they most wanted to see the company donate to. By voting, a post goes out onto your Facebook wall and into the News Feeds of all your friends, thus providing Target with valuable exposure. (For custom apps, see companies like Buddy Media, FanAppz, Wildfire Apps, Involver, Virtue, Context Optional.) [UPDATE: Thank you to Context Optional, the creators of Target’s “Bullseye Gives” campaign!]

#6: Integrate the Facebook Comment Feature

My favorite example of this is the t-shirt company Threadless. On their landing tab (canvas page), you can view and purchase t-shirts as well as Like and comment on any item and choose to have that comment posted to your Facebook profile, as shown in this screenshot:

(Screenshot of Threadless Facebook Fan Page landing tab)

Threadless actually has their landing tab set up so visitors don’t have to become a fan to purchase/comment/interact. Yet they have organically built well over 100,000 fans.

As users comment on items, that activity is pushed out into their stream (profile wall and their friends’ News Feeds), which creates valuable viral visibility for your fan page.

(Important Update: Facebook no longer supports FBML. Please refer to the articles on Facebook iFrame.) For further information on adding the comment box to your FBML page/app, see these pages.

#7: Get Fans to Tag Photos

If you host live events, be sure to take plenty of photos (or even hire a professional photographer), load the photos to your fan page and encourage fans to tag themselves. This, again, pushes out into their wall and friends’ News Feeds, providing valuable (free!) exposure. And, a picture says a thousand words – we notice the thumbnails in our feed more than text. (Props to Nick O’Neil for this tip.)

#8: Load Videos and Embed on Your Site

Facebook’s Video feature is extremely powerful. You can load video content to your Facebook fan page, then take the source code and embed on your blog/website. There is a “Become a Fan” button right in the video itself. For an excellent tutorial, see Nick O’Neil’s post: How To Get Thousands of Facebook Fans With a Single Video.

[UPDATE: Since Facebook changed the Become a Fan button to the Like button, embedded Facebook videos now display a white watermark hotlink of the Facebook name in the upper left corner of the video player - see first screenshot below. This is a clickable link that goes to the original video page on your fan page. If the visitor to your site clicks through to Facebook from your video, and they are logged into Facebook at the time, they will see a Like button at the top left corner of the video player - see second screenshot below.]

(Screenshot shows example of an embedded Facebook video on an external site)

(Screenshot shows the same video on the original page of the fan page with the Like button)

#9: Place Facebook Ads

Even with a nominal weekly/monthly budget, you should be able to boost your fan count using Facebook’s own social ad feature. It’s the most targeted traffic your money can buy. To buy an ad, scroll to the foot of any page inside Facebook and click the link at the very bottom that says “Advertising.” From there, you can walk through the wizard and get an excellent sense of how many Facebook users are in your exact target market.

Then, when you advertise your fan page, Facebook users can become a fan (click the Like button) right from the ad as shown in the screenshot below. Additionally, Facebook displays several of your friends who have already liked you, thus creating social proof.

My book with Chris Treadaway, Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day (Sybex) contains comprehensive instructions on maximizing your marketing through Facebook social ads.

#10: Run a Contest

This is somewhat of a gray area because Facebook changed their Promotional Guidelines last year. Essentially, you need prior written permission from Facebook and need to be spending a significant amount on ads per month. However, you CAN require Facebook users to become a fan of your fan page in order to enter a contest, sweepstakes, drawing or competition. See these two posts for further explanation. PLUS, good news: you CAN run contests and sweepstakes with the use of the apps created by Wildfire App.

#11: Link to Twitter

Link your Twitter account to your Facebook fan page and automatically post your Facebook content to Twitter. You can edit what gets posted, choosing from Status Updates, Photos, Links, Notes and Events.

You have 420 characters on the Facebook publisher and 140 on Twitter. In the tweet that goes out, Facebook truncates your post past a certain character count and inserts a bit.ly link back to your fan page. To track click-through stats on that link, just paste the bit.ly link that Facebook created for you in your browser’s address bar and add a “+” sign to the end. This works for any bit.ly link!

I also recommend you promote your Facebook fan page on your Twitter background and possibly in your Twitter bio/URL field too.

#12: Get Fans to Join Via SMS

Your fans can join your fan page via text message! You’ll need to get your first 25 fans and secure your username. Then, to join your fan page, Facebook users just send a text message to 32665 (FBOOK) with the words “fan yourusername” OR “like yourusername” (without the quotes).

This feature is ideal when you’re addressing a live audience, say. Have everyone pull out their mobile phones and join your fan page on the spot! This would also work well for radio or TV. (Note that this only works for Facebook users with a verified mobile device in his or her account.)

#13: Use Print Media

Look at every piece of print media you use in your business. Your Facebook fan page (as well as Twitter and any other social sites you’re active on), should be clearly displayed. Put your Facebook fan page link (and the logo) on your business cards, letterhead, brochure, print newsletter, magazine ads, products, etc.

#14: Display at Your Store/Business

If your business is run from physical premises, put a placard on the front desk letting your customers know you’re on Facebook. Ideally, you have a simple, memorable username. Incentivize customers to join right away via their mobile device and show you/your staff the confirmation for some kind of instant reward!

You might give out physical coupons promoting your fan page. For restaurants, put the Facebook logo, your username and a call to action on your menus.

I was at a hotel in San Francisco last fall and they had a placard in the elevators promoting their presence on Facebook and Twitter. The sign was very noticeable because of those ubiquitous Facebook and Twitter logos/colors!

#15. Add a Link on Your Personal Profile

If you’d like to promote your fan page to your Facebook friends, just under your photo on your personal profile there is a section to write something about yourself. I call this the “mini bio” field and strongly suggest adding a link to your fan page like so:

Be sure to format the URL with http:// otherwise it will not be clickable with just the www’s. You have a limited amount of characters, so keep it succinct and leave out the www’s. You can put in hard line breaks though to make the content easier to read.

#16: Add a Badge/Button to Your Profile

Using an app like Profile HTML or Extended Info, you can create your own custom HTML, including a Facebook badge and/or graphic embedded, as shown in the screenshot below:

#17: Use the Share Button

The Share button is all over Facebook and is a very handy feature. It only works for sharing on your personal profile. So periodically go to your fan page, scroll toward the bottom left column and click the “Share+” button. Add a compelling comment along the lines of exciting news, recent changes, special incentives, etc., happening on your fan page and invite your friends to join if they haven’t already. I find the Share button far more effective than the Suggest to Friends approach. (And, if you’d like to Share content from the web on to your fan page vs. profile, I highly recommend using the Hootlet bookmarklet tool at HootSuite.com).

#18: Use the @ Tag

As long as you’re a fan of your own fan page, you can “@ tag” it on your own personal profile wall. From time to time, you can let your friends know about something happening on your fan page by writing a personal status update that includes tagging your fan page with an @ tag. Simply start typing the “@” symbol and the first few letters of your fan page name (this works whether you have your username registered or not), and it will appear from a drop-down menu to select. This then makes it a nice, subtle hyperlink that your friends can choose to click on.

#19: Autograph Posts on Other Walls

A subtle way to gain more visibility for your fan page is to add an @ tag for your fan page when writing on your friends’ walls as a way to sign off.

I would use this one sparingly and, again, monitor the response from your friends. I have never been a fan of adding a signature block on Facebook wall posts because our name and profile picture thumbnail are always hyperlinked right back to our profile anyway. But the simple @ tag could be effective.

#20: Autograph Other Fan Pages

As with adding your fan page @ tag to posts you make on your friends’ walls, you could equally use the same technique when posting on other fan pages. This needs to be used with discretion and I would advise against doing this on any potentially competing fan page!

#21: Maybe Use “Suggest To Friends”

I won’t rule this one out completely as it does depend on how many friends you have, your relationship with your friends, how often you suggest fan pages/friends to your friends, etc (see ‘The Big Myth’ above). But I do recommend monitoring the response to this technique – perhaps simply by asking for feedback in your status update.

So, these are just 21 ways to create strategic visibility and promote your Facebook fan page.

Let’s hear from you.  Which ones have you implemented with success? Plus, do feel free to add any of your own creative promotional ideas in the comments box below!

With the constant stream (river!) of information rushing by on Twitter, here are five fun ways to capture your favorite tweets and have a way to archive/refer back to them.

First, let’s make sure you know how to favorite tweets, what types of tweets to favorite, and where to find your Favorites URL/RSS Feed:

How to Favorite a Tweet

From the regular Twitter web interface, favorite any tweet by mousing over the tweet then clicking the star. This works for anyone on Twitter, whether you follow them or not.

On third-party apps, the Favorite button might be a heart like Twhirl:

Or, on TweetDeck, it’s actually a three-step process.

On the iPhone app Tweetie, you can slide your finger over any tweet for options and tap the star, or tap the star at the bottom of the actual tweet:

What Types of Tweets to Favorite

It’s really a personal choice, but you might want to favorite a mix of great content tweets from people you follow, your own tweets and @ replies to you that are endorsements/testimonials (I usually take screenshots of the latter to keep them separate).

Where to Find Your Favorites URL/RSS Feed

Look for “Favorites” on the side panel of your Twitter page. If you right-click and select the link, you’ll get a simple URL like: http://twitter.com/MariSmith/favorites.

If you left-click the link to get to your page of Favorites, then scroll below the montage of your follower thumbnails, you’ll see “RSS feed of username’s favorites” with the recognizable orange RSS icon.

Okay, now you’re ready! Here are those five creative ways to make good use of your Twitter Favorites!

1. Publish to Facebook Via FriendFeed

FriendFeed.com is an excellent feed aggregator; literally anything with an RSS feed can be combined into one feed and then that feed can be added to your Facebook profile. Here’s how:

1. Register for your free account at FriendFeed.com if you haven’t already.
2. Click on Settings at the top right.
3. On the popup, look for the link that says ” add/edit” next to Services.
   
4. On the next screen, click on one of the orange RSS icons (it says “Blog,” but can be used for any RSS feed).
5. Paste in your Twitter Favorites URL. Mine works fine with the straight URL http://twitter.com/MariSmith/favorites, but you may find you need to put the actual RSS feed URL in. I’ve heard it can be a bit buggy for some folks.
6. Next, head over to Facebook and add the FriendFeed application.

Now, you should be able to favorite a tweet and go refresh your Facebook profile and see the new item on your Wall (and it goes out into the News Feed of all your friends).

I find this practice much more effective than automatically syncing all tweets with my Facebook updates. It gives me more control and means I can share more select content to my Facebook friends. Plus, with the ubiquitous Comment feature, your updates (Twitter favorites) can spark discussion.

Also, there’s always an abundance of great content to share on Twitter – if you’re away from your desk, for example, you can easily favorite a few tweets on your mobile device and that content goes over to your Facebook friends.

2. Favorite Content on Your Facebook Fan Page

I find the Facebook Fan Page to Twitter app very useful. You get a whopping 420 characters in the Publisher to create content. Then the app truncates around 120 characters and posts to Twitter with a bit.ly link back to your fan page. You can choose what content to post to Twitter; for example, your Status Updates, Photos, Links, Notes and Events:

Then when the post goes out as a tweet, when you favorite the tweet, you trigger the sequence in #1 above: posting to FriendFeed and to your Facebook profile, thus giving you additional visibility and control over what content goes where.

3. Add Your Favorites to Your Email Signature File

WiseStamp is a really nifty Firefox extension that gives you an HTML signature file for any webmail. You can insert any content, plus WiseStamp pulls in the icons for the social sites you wish to share as well:

Along with your social media icons, there’s an option to add an RSS feed of your choice. Click the RSS button and paste in your Twitter Favorites RSS Feed, enter your own Feed Title and voila!! As you select tweets to favorite, your email signature file now has dynamic content!

4. Create a Widget of Your Favorites for Your Blog

Among the various cool widgets Twitter offers (Goodies, they call them), they have a Faves Widget which you can easily customize and add to your blog/website:

This allows you to not only have your own tweets in a Twitter widget, but also to share dynamic, select content on your blog/site.

5. Make an Ebook Out of Your Favorites

Tweetbook.in is a little-known site that actually generates a PDF (plus XML backup) of your Tweets or your Favorites.

Tweetbook.in uses Oauth, so no need to enter your Twitter credentials. Once logged in, click the tab for Favorites, then click the “Generate PDF” button. If you have a ton of favorites, it may take a couple of minutes.

I first came across this nifty site some time ago and just recently remembered it! ” I’ve been adding to my Twitter Favorites since 2007 and have over 1500 favorites. The ebook I just created of my favorites is 104 pages! You’re welcome to download it here.

The cool thing is that any links in tweets are clickable in the PDF. The Twitter IDs are not, but @names and who authored the tweets are obvious.

Imagine the possibilities of creating your own PDF with your tweets/favorites!

These are just a few of the ways to use Twitter Favorites you may not have known. What other creative ways do you use Favorites? Add your comments below; we’d love to hear from you!

Why Do You Need a Facebook Fan Page? You may ask, “Why do I even need a Facebook fan page?” Here’s why: Facebook currently has an Alexa ranking of 2. They are the second most trafficked website next only to Google!

This means your Facebook page will be indexed faster on Google and other search engines, so if you don’t have a fan page, be sure to add one and promote it.

Here are 5 great ways to grow your Facebook fans:

#1: Invite People From Your Facebook Friend Lists

Do you have your personal friends and professional colleagues segmented into lists on your Facebook home page?

I have a number of lists in my personal Facebook account.

You can invite these lists as groups to your Facebook fan page instead of sending individual invites. This is the easiest and fastest way to jump-start your fan base.

When you click “Suggest to Friends” on your fan page, start typing in the name of your friends list in the filtered friends section; for example, “Social Media Professionals.” This will automatically send an invitation to your fan page to all of your colleagues listed in that category.

It’s possible that it may take a while before you start seeing those familiar faces pop up in your fan page because people are busy. There have been a few occasions where I’ve gently nudged them with an individual invite, but I keep that to a minimum.

As you add more people to your network, remember to go back to your same lists and send the invite to the new people you’ve added. The names of those who have already been invited will be grayed out and the invite will only be sent to your new contacts.

#2: Find People With Facebook Search

The updated Facebook Search feature (see the Search bar at the top of Facebook) gives you a view into conversations of your friends and status updates that may even show you who may be looking for the services you provide.

There is even an option to search “Posts by Everyone,” which gives you a glimpse into conversations of people who may not even be connected to you. After entering a search term, there will be a display, “Posts By Everyone.” This allows you to view conversations from others who aren’t in your friend lists.

Here is a screen shot when I entered “buying a home” in the Search field:

As you can see, there is a person saying “I think we are buying a house tomorrow.” If this person is already in your contacts list, the following is a very easy conversation starter: “Hi ___, I saw your Facebook comment about your plans to buy a house tomorrow. Do you need any help with school information in that particular area?”

There is another person stating that they plan to stay in their house for a long time. This can be a potential candidate for a loan refinance. Again, if this person is already a friend on Facebook, it would be very easy to start a conversation without sounding like an annoying salesperson.

#3: Attract People With Facebook Social Ads

Social Ads provide advertisements alongside your Facebook sidebar which show related actions your friends have taken on the site. These actions may be things like “Leah is now a fan of The Offspring. Would you like to become a fan too?” It is possible to tailor ads to your friends and their interests, which makes it more appealing for them to take action because you are interested as well.

This strategy requires a small budget, but can be very effective in finding your target market. It is very important to do a Facebook search with specific keywords in your particular niche to find out if it’s being talked about on Facebook (see #2 above).

If you click on “Promote With an Ad” on your fan page, you can start a campaign.  You can set a daily spending limit of $10, $25, or other appropriate amount. Because I market mostly to businesses with my keywords (such as real estate broker, loan officer, real estate investor, and so forth)—which are in numerous profiles as job descriptions—I have been able to use Facebook Social Ads effectively for my fan page.

It’s possible to run your Facebook ads for only 4 to 5 days with a $25 per day budget. Then stop the ad for a few weeks if you like and run the same ad again. This allows your fan page to grow in spurts and I have found it to be very effective in growing my fan base without spending a lot of money at once.

#4: Facebook Fan Page Twitter App

The Facebook Fan Page Twitter application is a great tool that brings your Twitter following back to your fan page. When you post a status update, a link or a photo (you can choose) on your Facebook fan page, there will be an update to Twitter with a shortened bit.ly link back to your fan page. This is just pure genius to drive traffic from another source right to your page.

There are other Facebook and Twitter integration applications; however, this is the one that leads people directly back to your page. This gives them an option to become a fan of your page right at that moment if they click on the bit.ly link from Twitter.

#5: Facebook Fan Box Widget

The Facebook Fan Box Widget is a great feature to add to your blog or website. This widget allows you to show your fan base and allows others to become fans instantly. This is just one way to promote your page across several social media sites. It is important to cross-reference all of your social media sites so others can find you and your websites on other networks.

For more great Facebook tips, be sure to check out Top Tips for Using Facebook for Business .

Editors note: Check out Social Media Examiner’s new Facebook fan page by clicking here.

So what do you have to add to this list? Are you finding other effective ways to promote your Facebook fan page? I would love to hear from you and your successes in promoting your pages in the comments below.